Cardiac patients' experiences with a telerehabilitation web portal: Implications for eHealth literacy.

OBJECTIVE

The aims of this study are two-fold: 1) To explore how cardiac patients experience their use of a telerehabilitation tool for recuperation from surgery, and 2) To study how the patients' use of the interactive 'Active Heart' web portal affected their eHealth literacy skills.

METHODS

The 'Active Heart' telerehabilitation web portal offers patients and their relatives information and exercises for recovery from cardiac surgery. 109 cardiac patients were using the Active Heart web portal for a duration of three months.

RESULTS

49 patients completed questionnaires that were administered both before and after their use of the portal, resulting in a 45% response rate. Respondents had a mean age of 60.64 ± 10.75 years, and 82% of the respondents were males. The respondents had a positive impression of Active Heart, reporting that it was easy to access, user-friendly, and written in an understandable language. The patients' eHealth literacy skills increased during the trial period.

CONCLUSION

Use of a cardiac telerehabilitation web portal can be beneficial for patient education and can increase cardiac patients' eHealth literacy skills.

PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: Online telerehabilitation portals may be used as a tool in patient education and cardiac rehabilitation.